mulch question

I'm going to use mulch for the first time because I have heard so many good things about it on this website. I have a hard crust of soil that gets baked by the sun every day. Just an inch down is a more moist color brown than the top. So I'm hoping that the mulch will protect the soil from the sun.

But here is what I don't understand about mulch. If I water briefly ( 5 min usual), how will the soil below get wet? Will it end up just watering the mulch, or will it sink down somehow ? I don't want the water trapped in an upper layer of course.

I already bought my mulch, but I's still appreciate any advice or links.

It should sink down past the mulch. What kind did you get?

The water will filter through the mulch into the soil, assuming you apply enough water. If you're not sure, you might try watering, and then going back in an hour or so and poking a finger down through the mulch into the soil an inch or two to make sure that it's damp.

I use 2 to 3 inches of cypress mulch on all my flower beds with sheets of newspaper underneath. In the past two weeks I've received half an inch of rain and the soil is still damp. The rain came about a week ago. My plants aren't growing as they did when moisture was more plentiful but they still look healthy.

If it's really dry, 5 minutes of watering won't be sufficient. I lay soaker hoses down and then mulch on top of them (to help protect the hoses from the hot sun). I run them for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how hot and dry it's been. Like gk1153, I use 2-3 inches of mulch.

I bought two mulches and planned to put one on top of the other. One feels somewhat dry, and is like a mix of light top soil and plant debris strips. The other is moist, and is solely bark pieces.

For me, the whole point of this mulch is moisture control, so I hope I don't need to water more because of it.

If plants are newly placed I give them a quart of water every day for the first week if it doesn't rain. Then I cut back to every other day for a week or so. Then every three days. By two months I stop watering unless they begin to really droop. Most of the time they take off as established after two months.

This time of year I water all plants every two to three days since it's so hot and dry. I water each bed about ten minutes with the hose nozzle set on shower and let it "rain" down on them. I've got one flower bed and three tomato plants I don't have enough hose to reach. I load a couple five gallon pails and milk jugs filled with water in my pickup and give each plant a healthy drink. I read somewhere on DG that most plants die from lack of water during autumn than are killed by winter temperatures.

I like the way it sounds like I have years of experience. This is my first year with large flower beds and many plants. What I've described is the way I've cared for them since spring when they were planted. I've lost a few and saved a few but mostly they've done well on their own with a little assistance from me.

Gary

I agree on 5 minutes not being enough (regardless of mulch or not). It's always better to water less often but more deeply, that way the plants' roots grow down looking for water rather than staying right near the surface. If you have hard clay soil and the water runs off quickly, then you probably need to water in bursts--do 5 min, let it soak in a bit, come back and do another 5, etc and repeat a few times to make sure the water really gets deeper into the soil (if you're on sprinklers, most of them will let you program in this sort of cycles). If you have sandy soil, you don't need to take those breaks to let the water soak in, you can just let it go continuously for a while. In terms of the mulch--if you're watering properly and you mulch your beds, you should be able to water less often since the mulch will help keep the soil cooler and keep water from evaporating from the surface of the soil as quickly.

I agree with Ecrane, the only thing I would add is IF you have a hard crust on top of the soil, very lightly fork the top inch to break up this crust so water can penetrate INTO the soil rather than run off the top, as said already, the mulch helps to keep soil cooler in hot weather and acts like a blanket in cold weather to stop the soil getting too hot or cols around the roots, if you do have a clay soil, each year the mulch can be dug in as it composts naturally and this helps get air into the clay soil, but if it is sandy soil, digging the composted mulch into the soil will add some body to hold onto moisture, then each year you just add some more fresh mulch as you get hold of it, best time to buy mulches cheaper is when the garden stores etc are selling it off so you always have a handy supply to hand. good luck. WeeNel.

Thanks everyone. I put on the mulch and it seems good so far. It certainly looks better, one of the unintended good results.

Good for you, just remember that mulching dont mean no watering, but as Ecrane said, a finger test into the soil will keep you right. good luck. WeeNel.